


Thoughts About Penny's Semblance

by Twilightdusk



Category: RWBY
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Light Angst, One Shot Collection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2020-12-24 21:00:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21105920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twilightdusk/pseuds/Twilightdusk
Summary: A collection of short one-shots exploring some ideas about Penny's semblance





	1. Cover Story

Penny smiled as she sat on the edge of Ruby’s bed, watching her dear friend practically bouncing around the room as she dramatically reenacted a duel from the combat class team RWBY had just returned from. In the past few weeks, her presence in their dorm room had become ordinary enough that Blake and Weiss weren’t even paying her any mind, just reading and studying respectively, or trying to above the din of Ruby’s excited retelling at least.

“...And then Pyrrha was like ‘nuh uh!’ and caught Crescent Rose with her polarity, but I was expecting it and went all ‘woosh!’ and charged into her with my petal burst slam!” Ruby enthusiastically flailed her arms around as she continued retelling the fight. Fortunately for the room’s integrity, Weiss had insisted she not actually wield her scythe while talking about it, but that didn’t stop some petals from fluttering around the room as she demonstratively charged forward. One of the petals drifted and fell on Penny’s leg, and she curiously picked it up, feeling the texture between her fingers before it dissipated into aura.

“Is that what you’re calling it? It looked more like you just panicked and tried to flail into her.” Blake commented in her usual monotone as she flipped to the next page of the book she was reading.

“Besides, didn’t Pyrrha catch you in the stomach with her shield after that? She barely even took any damage to her aura.” Weiss smirked as she joined in grounding Ruby’s fanciful story.

“You guys! You’re ruining the story! Besides, Miss Goodwitch even gave me credit for incorporating my semblance more into the fight.” Ruby huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

Penny giggled at the friendly bickering, such conversations were still unusual to her but she was becoming more accustomed to them as she spent time around the team. Despite the words seeming like an argument, she could tell that the three of them weren’t angry with each other, it was ‘good natured ribbing’ as Yang had put it once. The extra commentary also allowed Penny to construct a more accurate replay of the fight in her memory. “I wish I could have seen your fight for myself Ruby, you and your classmates have such interesting fighting styles.”

“Yea, I wish I could have shown off to you in person Penny!” Ruby grinned and seemed to ignore any embarrassment from the thought of her friend seeing her lose the training match. “It’s too bad you got set up with a different exchange student schedule.”

“It cannot be helped. I will just have to wait for your Vytal Festival Tournament matches to see you all in action.” Penny smiled more, “And in the meantime, you are giving me a very good idea of your team’s capabilities.”

“Yea, maybe a little too good an idea.” Penny blinked at the voice and turned her head to see Yang suddenly sitting next to her, and just as suddenly pulling her into a one-armed hug from the side. “Maybe we should be asking you to spill a few things before we let Ruby reenact any more training matches for you.” Yang grinned teasingly, from the tone of her voice it was clear she was mostly joking around, but there was a slightly more serious quality to her question than usual. 

“Wha- hey! Give her a break Yang.” Ruby’s cheeks tinged red as she glared up at her sister “What are you doing up on my bed anyway?”

“What, your new girlfriend is allowed up here but your dear old sister isn’t? That hurts Rubes.” Yang used her free arm to dramatically hold her hand over her heart, the lighthearted sarcasm in her voice was so obvious that even Penny knew she wasn’t really injured. Ruby’s cheeks only grew redder at the teasing. Yang returned to her grin and pulled Penny tighter against herself, “Besides, it’s true that we don’t know much about you Penny. You said you were entering the tournament and Ruby and Blake saw you fight that one time at the docks, but that doesn’t give us much to go on.”

Penny gave a quiet hum of thought as she turned to look at Yang, not seeming bothered at all by the closeness. “Very well, what do you wish to know about me Yang?”

Yang’s eyes widened for a moment and she chuckled, relaxing her grip on Penny’s body. “Huh, wasn’t expecting it to be that easy. Let me think…” She closed her eyes in thought and let out a louder hum, as if she was competing with Penny’s somehow. After a moment she pointed her finger up into the air “Aha, got it!” Her grin returned as she tilted the finger down to point at Penny accusingly. “I want to know what your semblance is.”

Penny’s eyes widened in surprise at the question. Weiss looked up from her papers to chime in “Huh, I’m impressed Yang, that’s actually a good question.” Yang turned her head to stick her tongue out at Weiss as she turned her chair around to face them more directly. Blake also turned her attention towards the orange haired girl, even closing her book as she looked up at them.

Ruby chuckled nervously as she looked around the room, the sound breaking an awkward silence “H-hey come on guys, you’re not really supposed to ask about that kind of thing right? I know we don’t really keep ours a secret but I’m sure there’s a reason Penny hasn’t talked about hers...right?” Even in her attempt to protect her friend’s privacy, Ruby’s tone indicated a strong curiosity about the question. 

Penny let out another hum and then a sigh. “I suppose I should tell you.” She takes a deep breath, due to her nature she didn’t really need to breathe, but she knew people took breaths to calm themselves and collect their thoughts, and she felt like she could use a moment for those tasks. “The way my father told me to explain it is: My semblance allows me to telekinetically control a limited number of objects with speed and precision. It takes a long time to attune to objects for it to work, so I cannot really use it arbitrarily, but instead I use it to control my weapons, like this.” She smiled and made sure to keep her hands flat against her legs as four of her swords floated up from her backpack behind her and into the air above her head. Yang’s eyes widened in surprise seeing it happen, and Weiss watched with interest. Blake simply nodded her head and went back to her book, having seen the Floating Array in action back at the docks.

Ruby, however, was narrowing her eyes suspiciously. “Waaaait a minute, you showed me how your swords work before and a semblance has nothing to do with it.”

Penny blinked and her smile turned a little nervous despite her best efforts. “Whatever do you mean Ruby? I explained it before, my weapon relies on *Hic!* my semblance.” She managed to hold the smile despite that nervous tic of hers showing. She’d been careful about what she said before to make sure it didn’t trigger during her explanation, but as usual Ruby was forcing her to improvise. 

Ruby hummed and shook her head, frowning in thought. “No, I definitely would have remembered that. How was it you said they work...oh yea!” Ruby’s eyes lit up with an excitement she reserves for talking about weapons. Normally Penny would be happy to see that excitement as it proceeded Ruby talking about Crescent Rose or other interesting weapons in great detail, but right now it just made her spend even more effort keeping her smile from fading into more obvious panic. “You were showing me how they connect into your body with little wires and you use your robot-y processes to control them and make them fly around all ‘whish’ and ‘whoosh’!” Ruby excitedly gestures around again as Penny’s expression finally falls, her eyes widening and mouth opening in shock.

“R-Ruby!!” Penny shouts out as she looks around the room in a panic, expecting to see the rest of team RWBY staring at her with surprise at her secret being exposed. But she blinked a few times as none of the other team members seemed to react to the word at all, even as Ruby realized what she said and clapped her hands over her mouth.

Yang gave a slight chuckle and clapped Penny on the shoulder, smiling at her sympathetically. “Hey ah, don’t be too mad at her OK? We kind of pressed her for some more information about you before and it slipped out.” 

Ruby’s face was bright red again, the girl poking her fingers together as she looked away in shame. “S-Sorry Penny, I know it was an important secret…” 

Weiss sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose “I knew we should have been more upfront about this. On behalf of the team I apologize for this breach of your privacy Penny. If it helps we backed off after ‘Penny is actually a robot,’ and she assured us that it was ‘super cool,’ and not anything to be worried about.” 

“None of us are going to tell anyone, our lips are sealed alright?” Yang continued as she slid two fingers across her mouth, Penny recognized the gesture as one for keeping a secret and nodded her head.

“Are...you sure? There are a lot of people who would be interested in knowing about me after all.” Penny’s eyes drifted down to Weiss in particular, who gave a short, indignant laugh.

“Please Penny, you should know me well enough by now to know that my father wanting to know about you is all the more reason for me _ not _to tell him.” Weiss smirked at the thought of how furious her father would be if he found out she was hiding something like this, the look on his face alone would be worth keeping the secret outside of other concerns.

“She knows I was White Fang and hasn’t told anyone, fair’s fair.” Blake chimed in with her usual monotone as she flipped another page in her book.

Penny let out another sigh, the tone somewhere in a mix of relief and defeat as she was convinced her new friends wouldn’t betray her secret. “Thank you...all of you.”

“But er, Penny...that still doesn’t explain why you just lied to us?” Ruby looked back up at Penny, a mixture of shame and curiosity on her face.

Penny’s cheeks tinged red in embarrassment as she motioned to clear her throat, the act purely habitual as nobody in the room needed to be convinced she wasn’t a machine “I did not lie Ruby, that really is what my father told me to say.”

“Yea but like, is that really what your semblance is?” Yang raised an eyebrow as she stared down Penny, who proceeded to look in the other direction.

“Y-yes. *Hic!* Th-that is an accurate summary of my semblance *Hic!*” Penny began to fidget with her hands as her blades wobbled in the air above her, prompting Yang to slide away slightly.

Weiss let out an annoyed sigh as she stood up from her seat. “Look Penny, we’ll understand if you just say you don’t want to tell us what it really is, but you’re way too bad at lying to keep that up alright?”

Yang smiled and nodded her head “Yea, I didn’t mean to press you that hard or anything, I just figured you’d probably tell us if we asked, since we’re all friends and all.”

The word made Penny’s head perk up slightly. She bit her lip nervously and gripped one hand in the other, carefully letting her blades fold back away into her backpack. “You’re all...really my friends right? I can trust you?”

Yang smiled widely at that and clapped Penny on the shoulder again “Come on, you’re really asking that? Of course you’re our friend, and we won’t tell anyone, same as with the whole robot girl thing OK?”

Penny’s eyes scanned around the room, seeing Weiss, Ruby, and even Blake nod their heads in agreement. She sighed and once again took a symbolic deep breath, her cheeks remaining tinged red with embarrassment. 

“I...don’t have a semblance.” 

The silence in the room was metaphorically audible for a few seconds until Yang broke it by clearing her throat, giving Penny another one of her supportive smiles. “What, you mean you haven’t found yours yet? That’s a bit surprising given how strong you are and all.”

Penny bit her lip again and shook her head, balling her hands into fists against her legs again. “No that’s not it. I don’t _ have _a semblance, I can’t have one. It’s amazing enough that I can generate aura in the first place. It’s impossible for something like me to have a semblance.” 

Ruby frowned and another gust of petals filled the room as she dashed up into her bed, sitting on the opposite side of Penny from Yang and reaching a hand over hers. “Hey now, don’t you start with that again.” She gently squeezed Penny’s hand, feeling the warm, soft layer of skin and not the hard metal underneath. “You’re just as real as me, or Yang, or Weiss, or anyone! You’re not just some replaceable machine, you’re a person Penny! And you’re our friend.

Yang grinned and slapped Penny on the back, wincing slightly as she did get to feel the solid metal resisting the force of her hand. “Yea, I mean, none of us could have thought otherwise before we found out. And it’s not like some fake robo-girl could be my little sister’s girlfriend” She looked towards Ruby fast enough to duck out of the way of an incoming pillow as Ruby blushed bright red and glared at her indignantly. 

Penny didn’t pay any mind to the declaration, staring down at Ruby’s hand in thought before looking up at her face. “Ruby…” The word brought Ruby’s attention back to her, the glare at her sister fading completely into a smile, the girl nodding her head for Penny to continue. “You really think I will find a semblance one day?”

“Ah ah ah!” Ruby held one finger up towards Penny and wagged it scoldingly “You’re not going to find some random semblance laying around Penny, you’re going to _ discover your _ semblance.” Ruby poked that finger against Penny’s arm to emphasize those two words, and then smiled at her brightly “And I, er, we…” Ruby’s blush returned as she cleared her throat “We’re going to be right by your side when that happens, right girls?” 

Ruby looked around the room for her team’s support, Yang responding first with a chuckle “Yea, we’ll give you all the support you need in finding it, assuming you want someone other than Ruby to help.” Ruby glared at her as if silently asking ‘really?’ before shifting her gaze to Weiss.

The heiress sighed dramatically and turned back to her textbooks. “I suppose if I find some free time I can find some library books about semblance discovery to see if any of those might help.” Ruby gave her a thankful smile before glancing over to their last team member.

“Sure, I don’t have any problem helping out.” Blake turned another page in her book, leaving Ruby to hug herself against Penny’s body.

“See? All of us are here pulling for you, so don’t give up okay?” She gave another one of her bright, innocent smiles, and Penny couldn’t help but smile herself in return.

“Alright then. Thank you Ruby, you really are a great friend.” Penny returned the smile as naturally as she could, watching as Ruby blushed more and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment from the praise. For the first time she could remember, Penny was actually hopeful that she might find her semblance, and she found herself hoping that whatever it was would impress the girl in front of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm writing this mostly to help develop some thoughts regarding a more involved fic I may or may not write in the future. Future chapters will be scenes showing off various ideas I have for her actual semblance, I have three ideas in mind so far but I might come up with more, or I might start writing one of my ideas and realize it just wouldn't work and scrap it.


	2. Psychometry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Psychometry: the supposed ability to discover facts about an event or person by touching inanimate objects associated with them.

Penny smiled as she and her companions walked down the forested road. She turned her head upward toward the treeline, letting herself enjoy the sounds of songbirds fluttering through the branches, and the leaves swaying and brushing against each other in the breeze. It was ironic that it took such a tragic event as the Fall of Beacon to give her the opportunity and excuse to slip away into the countryside and take the time to enjoy the smaller parts of life like this. A distant, growling roar, on the other hand, reminded her that their journey wasn’t going to be all fun and games. She glanced around at her traveling companions, but neither Ruby, Jaune, nor Ciel seemed to have heard the noise. Penny nodded to herself, confident that the particular Grimm was far enough away that they weren’t in any danger for the moment.

“So, how far until we reach the next town Ciel?” Ruby’s chipper voice broke the calm silence that had been hanging over the group as they walked. Anima was a large enough and dangerous enough continent that there was quite a distance between settlements, the previous two nights they had camped on the road. In theory, Penny didn’t need to sleep and could have continued through the night, but that would require leaving her companions behind. Aside from simply being safer to travel in a group, the robotic girl simply wanted to remain by their side for the sake of it.

“If this map is right, and we’ve been keeping the pace I think we have, we should arrive in the next few minutes.” Ciel kept her tone as serious as usual, unfolding the map and staring at it to check her statement. Out of the four of them, there hadn’t been too much argument in having her hold onto the map and keep track of their progress. Ruby had suggested that Penny be the one to keep track, but she herself had insisted that Ciel would be better at actually keeping track of how far along they were, and at relating the distances on the map to their actual pace, something that Penny still had some trouble with considering she could go a lot faster if she wished.

“Right um, it’s supposed to be coming up on the left of the path, right?” Jaune was the odd one out to Penny, not having had much opportunity to spend time with him before everything happened. Ruby assured her he was trustworthy and capable in his own way, and granted he managed to avoid weighing them down during most of their Grimm encounters so far, but if Penny were picking her own team, he wouldn’t be high on her list. Still, he was there and willing to join them, and Ruby did seem to think he would be helpful.

“Yes, that sounds correct, why?” Ciel asked as she started to fold the map away and back into her bag.

“Because I think I see smoke from that direction. Like, a lot of it.”

Ruby gasped in surprise as she, Penny, and Ciel all looked up in the direction Jaune was pointing. There was indeed an unexpected amount of thick, black smoke. Some might be expected from fireplaces and the like being used in the village but this much...The four of them exchanged a quick glance before picking up speed along the path, making sure their weapons were ready in case they were needed. Penny pushed back a thought of jetting ahead of the rest of them to start getting a look, she could definitely get there sooner, but if she did and there was still danger present, she would want to be with her friends, not isolated on her own again.

The entrance arc to the town of Heshun was more or less intact, but the same could not be said for the buildings within its walls. Splintered wood and shattered stone lay strewn about like the aftermath of a hurricane, several entire buildings were toppled onto their sides with breaks at awkward angles, and the smoke they had seen was from a grand, still-burning structure towards the back of the town that must have been the village leader’s. 

“What...do you think happened here?” Jaune eventually spoke up as the group reached the center of the village. Whatever had caused all of this damage, the place was thoroughly abandoned. Nobody was crying or screaming for help, no Grimm lingered. Penny had noticed a few bodies among the rubble, but hadn’t wanted to speak up yet.

“What always happens out here. Grimm.” Ciel stated matter-of-factly before taking a long breath. “I know this is a shock but try to stay calm, whatever caused this could still be nearby.” The statement seemed to have the opposite of the intended effect on Jaune, who looked like he could faint or puke at any moment, but Ruby nodded her head, taking a breath of her own and steeling herself.

“Let’s take a look around. Even if there aren't any survivors we might find something useful.” Ruby turned to look at Penny, who nodded and gave her usual smile. She was as nervous as the rest of them, but one perk of being a robot is having better control over her facial expressions than most.

“Let us split up then.” She spoke, glancing around the town before pointing towards one half of it. “The buildings over there seem more intact. Ciel, Jaune, please see if you can find any supplies or a good spot to set up for the night.” The two physically weaker members of their team nodded their heads and started walking as Penny turned back to Ruby. “We will see if we can find anything to figure out what happened here Ruby.” 

Ruby smiled and chuckled gently at that, reaching out to tap Penny’s arm with her fist “Hey, with you here, I’m sure we’ll find something. Are you sure you’ll be okay though?” Ruby’s smile faltered as she asked the question, but Penny nodded her head.

“Of course, you will be with me after all Ruby.” The statement got a blush from her red-clad friend as she turned and cleared her throat.

The pair set out towards the more destroyed looking portion of the town, including the impressively still on fire building. Ruby grimaced each time they came across a body, usually trapped under some sort of debris and with clear signs of claw and bite wounds. Some had shattered swords, splintered spears, or chipped away shields scattered nearby, but nothing intricate, nothing personal, just the tools of an ordinary town guard, or possibly even emergency weapons from the town’s armory that were brought out to defend the doomed settlement. Still, Penny continued looking, lifting up fallen beams and the remains of walls to search for something that might be hidden away.

“Hey Penny, I think I found something!” Penny’s head perked up at the sound of Ruby’s voice after the long silence of searching. The girl was waving her arm exaggeratedly in a motion to join her by what seemed to be the remains of a house, the front wall torn impressively away around where the door frame might have been. Upon walking inside, Ruby crouched by a corner and pointed to something. Penny took a minute to examine the object, recognizing it as a doll. It might have been impressive at one point, but the strands of hair on its head were mostly fallen out, one of the arms showed a lot more wear than the other, as if it was constantly gripped, and the legs were scuffed and dirty as though it were regularly pulled along the ground rather than carried properly. The dress it wore was torn and tattered, and the color seemed unevenly faded.

Penny smiled at the discovery and clapped her hands together. “It is perfect, thank you Ruby.” She watched her friend smile and rub the back of her head in a show of modesty before she gently picked up the toy, careful not to damage it any further than it already was.

“Do you um, want to find somewhere to lie down first?” Ruby spoke up with some concern in her voice, but Penny shook her head.

“Here will do fine, and I promise I will be fine Ruby. Just shake me out of it like usual if something happens out here okay?” Penny waited until Ruby sighed and nodded her head, the black haired girl taking a seat on the slanted remains of a bed as she prepared to watch over her. Penny then took a seat against the wall and closed her eyes. Her body started to glow with her green aura, as did the doll in her hands.

* * *

Penny was proud. She put the finishing touches on the doll in her hand, checking it over for loose seems or torn fabric. Satisfied with her work, she placed the doll inside of a box.

Penny was happy. She had just opened the shiny gift wrapped box her mama had given her, and inside was the most lovely doll she had ever seen. It had soft skin and shiny red hair, and even a cute blue dress. It was the bestest birthday present ever, she loved it. She loved her mama. She was happy.

Penny was excited. She looked back behind her at the doll she dragged along the ground. The doll was her friend, and she had taken her by the hand to bring her to her favorite spot in the village. Mama told her to be gentle with her and carry her in her arms, but you don’t carry friends, that was silly. Dolly was going to love her relaxing spot, she knew it.

Penny was afraid. Thunder boomed outside her house and she gasped in fear, hugging closely to her dolly. Dolly could keep her safe, or at least she could be hugged and help take away the edge from the storm outside, and that was enough.

Penny was cold. Penny’s owner hadn’t hugged or touched her in a long time. It was dark.

Penny was nostalgic. She smiled fondly as she cleaned under the bed and found that old doll of hers. Its hair was falling out and its dress torn up a bit, but that seemed appropriate for such an old thing. She put the doll on her shelf and continued cleaning.

Penny was panicked. She held a bag and was throwing in anything that could be helpful. Her hand closed around the old doll, considering it. It wouldn’t really be helpful, she should just leave it. Suddenly the door was kicked open. Two women in masks shouted at Penny. She threw the doll to the side and trembled as she was forced to continue packing her bag at swordpoint.

Penny was lonely. Her owner had left her and been taken away. Nobody was there.

* * *

“...Penny? Are you alright?” Ruby stood over her friend as she focused on her task. It had been nice seeing her expressions change at first, seeming rather happy and content for a while, but in the past minute it had changed sharply, her mouth turning into a sharp frown and her body starting to tremble. She must have gotten to the recent part of things, Ruby didn’t want to interrupt, but she couldn’t help but be concerned.

Ruby sighed in relief seeing her friend’s eyes open back up and the glow of her aura fade. Penny let out a sigh as she regained her focus and composure, smiling up at Ruby after a few moments. “I am alright Ruby, thank you for keeping a look out for me.” The robot girl stood up and hummed to herself as she considered the room they were in. She walked over to where the door frame was and stared towards the town’s exits in thought. 

After waiting for a few moments Ruby cleared her throat. “So um, think you found anything out Penny? Why the Grimm attacked here?”

Penny nodded her head, staring down at the doll in her hands and smiling before she turned to place it back on the intact bookshelf. “Yes, I did. Bandits attacked, they forced people to give them supplies and made some come with them. The Grimm must have attacked in the aftermath.” She hummed again as she looked towards the large, burning building. “Judging by that, it must have been in the past few days. They might still be close, or they might have moved on. Either way, I believe it is unlikely they will bother returning here.”

Ruby sighed sadly and nodded her head “Thanks for finding out Penny. It’s hard to believe people like that really exist in the world, people who just don’t care about anyone but themselves…”

Penny smiled and placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “We will be okay Ruby. We have each other, and we will not act like those people. Let us head back to the others and set up camp, the town should be safe enough for tonight.” Ruby nodded her head at that, still frowning, but taking her friend’s hand as they walked back through the ruined town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ciel and Jaune were chosen pretty arbitrarily to be the other two in this chapter, but I did come up with a team name: RAPS - Rhapsody.
> 
> My inspiration for this Semblance for Penny is that she's an "object" that has thoughts and feelings, so being able to pick up thoughts and feeling lingering on other objects could be appropriate. It was also inspired by the game Lost Dimension, where one of the psychic characters has Psychometry as their ability.


	3. Machine Mind

General Ironwood sighed as he sat at his desk. The view of Vale was quite impressive from the window of his office on the Atlesian fleet's flagship, not that he had time to be staring out at it. Even with the help of the people he nominally put in charge of his various duties back in Atlas, there was always more paperwork and decision making waiting on his approval when he arrived back at his desk.

On top of that, he just received a message that one of the soldiers on the ship wanted to speak with him, the thought alone made Ironwood pinch the bridge of his nose. There was an established chain of communication for just about any scenario of things that could go wrong with the ship or with the operation, and none of them involved a common soldier talking to him directly, so this was either a waste of his time by someone who can't follow protocol, or some scenario so absurd that it had escaped being accounted for in their planning. "You may enter."

The door opened and a soldier walked into the office, wearing his full uniform still which obscured his face. Based on the design he was one of the guards on security detail for the ship, as low ranked as one could be on it which admittedly still meant he was higher up the chain than many others in the army that had come to Vale. He walked through the door and about halfway to the desk before he stopped and saluted. "Sir! Private Cerulean reporting. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me, sir!" 

"At ease soldier." Ironwood held back another sigh as the man's posture relaxed. "I understand you wanted to speak to me about an incident you witnessed today, please proceed." 

"Yes sir!" The soldier's posture stiffened again as he hesitated, but then proceeded to speak. "You see I was making my rounds earlier today and came across young miss Polendina walking in the cargo bay alongside two knights. My understanding was that she was not supposed to be there so I ordered her away and then...one of the knights started behaving strangely." 

Ironwood let out a heavy sigh as he raised his hand, prompting the soldiers to pause his story. "You are aware that we have an entire department of roboticists on this ship who are in charge of maintaining the knights correct? Is there a reason you didn't simply report this incident to them?" 

The soldier gulped nervously and nodded his head, saluting again for good measure. "Sir yes sir! I reported this right away to Doctor Steel and he insisted I should give my report to you directly, sir!" 

The soldier held his salute while Ironwood crossed his hands in front of his face in thought. Steel was a slightly eccentric man but not far outside the standard for his position, accomplished roboticists seemed to have some minimum requirements of unhinged personality. Ironwood would usually trust and defer to his decision making, but something about the details must have made him think the general would find the story incredulous coming secondhand. He sighed out again and gestured to the private. "Proceed."

"Sir, thank you sir! As I was saying one of the knights began to behave strangely. I saw it position it's arm between young miss Polendina and myself. After that the other knight shifted its position as well, it stepped forward and turned to face me. Sir if I thought it was possible, it was as if they were ...defending her."

Ironwood maintained his stance with his hands crossed in front of him, hiding the combination of confusion and frustration on his face. "I understand why you felt this was worth reporting Private. What happened after that?"

"Well sir, young miss Polendina said... something to one of the knights and they backed off- er, rather, they returned to their usual stances sir! She apologized for wandering the ship and they proceeded back towards her quarters. After I saw them leave the cargo hold I went to report the incident to Doctor Steel sir."

Ironwood hummed in thought as he considered the report. "What exactly did miss Polendina say to the knight?" He asked after a few moments.

The soldier gulped and returned to a stiff salute as he responded. "Sir! I must have misheard what she said sir! Doctor Steel told me as much so I didn't think it was worthy of my report sir!"

Ironwood sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose again. "I will note it as speculation rather than fact. I would still like to hear what you think she said."

"A-as you wish sir! I could have sworn I heard her say 'it is alright Jiminy, he will not hurt me.' Sir!"

Ironwood blinked several times before clearing his throat and nodding his head. "I see...one last question, did you notice anything else out of the ordinary about these knights? Any extra or modified looking parts perhaps?"

The private hesitated for a few moments before speaking again, "Sir! Well, I can't say I noticed anything strange about their parts however...I did notice a green glow in the room at that time. It was lighting up young miss Polendina as well so I didn't think it was anything to do with the knights specifically."

"I see. Thank you for your report private, you are dismissed." Ironwood watched the soldier salute again before turning and walking out of the door. He sighed once again and sat back in his chair. "That girl...I suppose imaginary friends are normal at her age but I'll need to find out how she made the knights react to her…" he shook his head and made a mental note to speak with Penny later, getting back to his pile of paperwork for the time being.

* * *

Penny smiled sympathetically as she poured some tea into a cup, carefully setting the pot down on the small, circular table before handing the cup to a knight sitting in the chair next to her. "I'm sorry we could not find the tea you like Jiminy but I hope you will enjoy this one." The knight nodded its head and accepted the cup, miming blowing on it and tipping it slightly towards where it's mouth would be.

Another knight seated on the other side of Penny gestured with one of its arms, waving it high into the air before bringing it down and knocking the table loudly. Penny frowned and raised her finger in a scolding gesture. "Now now Figaro, I understand you are upset but that soldier was just doing his job, we should not speak poorly of him." The knight slumped backward into its seat in response.

Penny smiled and raised her own teacup to her lips, taking a small sip of it. Tea parties could be so much fun when you had friends to enjoy them with.


End file.
